What Friends are For
by Inherent Anxiety
Summary: It's nearly two in the morning and the phone rings. Maybe I should have seen his answer coming. "It could be Riley." Set not too long after the first movie. Abigail's POV, one-shot. First National Treasure story.


Summary: It's nearly two in the morning and the phone rings. Maybe I should have seen his answer coming. "It could be Riley." Set not too long after the first movie. Abigail's POV, one-shot.

Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of its characters.

/

I'm in a deep sleep, and I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming of that moment when we found the treasure, as I often do, except some little thing is always off. Like, Ben will be wearing a weird hat. Or I'll be wearing a puffy dress. Or Riley will be a little kid.

Tonight, everything is the way it really was, only in black and white. And I'm seeing Riley when he found that green statue thing. Only, the statue starts beeping. And Riley cries out, "It's a robot!" And then I realize the statue isn't beeping, it's ringing.

That's when I wake up to the phone ringing and Ben yawning as he pulls himself from sleep. I giggle to myself a bit at the phone ringing and inserting itself into my dream to turn an old statue into a robot. But then I look at the time and my giggling ceases. It's nearly two in the morning! Who in the world would call someone at nearly two in the morning?

I turn to Ben to say this, but he's reaching for the phone, the one that sits on Ben's nightstand.

"Ben!" I exclaim. "What are you doing? It's 1:45 in the morning. Why are you answering?"

Maybe I should have seen his answer coming.

"It could be Riley," he replies urgently. He reaches for the phone and places the cordless against his ear as he begins to sit up. "Hello…oh it's ok."

"Is it Riley?" I ask from my place in bed.

"Hold on a sec, ok?" Ben says into the phone before turning to me. "It's Riley. I'm going to take this in the other room so I won't disturb you." He gets out of bed and heads towards the doorway of the bedroom.

"Ben, can't he call back in the morning?" I say.

Ben just waves his hand at me while shaking his head no, a silent combination of _no he can't _and _be quiet_.

I remain in bed only moments after Ben has exited the room before heading to the doorway to listen in. Normally, I'm not this juvenile, but lately Riley has been wearing off on me. Ben is lying on the couch now, with the phone pressed to his ear as he and Riley talk. What they're talking about at two in the morning, I haven't a clue, but I'm hoping to figure it out.

"Riles, you can always call me. You know that. No, Riley, it's ok. She's not mad at you," Ben's saying. Riley must have heard me in the background, asking if he could call back in the morning. Suddenly a pit of guilt settles into my stomach. "Don't worry about it, ok?" A pause as Riley says something. "What did you do after we had dinner?" A smile spreads across my face. Ben and I did go to dinner with Riley tonight and Ben and I separated from Riley to go home a mere four hours ago.

It's actually something I admire about Ben and Riley's friendship. The two of them could spend the entire day together, literally sun up to sun down talking and still have things to talk about, all the way into the wee hours of the morning. I don't really know how they do it, but it's kind of entertaining to spend the day with them. They talk about the most random things. And somehow, no matter how little I can keep up with the conversation, they almost always know what the other is talking about.

My attention is brought back to the present, to Ben as he speaks with Riley, when Ben laughs. He's smiling and chuckling at whatever Riley is saying. At one point he says, "Oh of course," and then laughs.

After a few minutes, Riley must have asked him what Ben did after dinner because he says, "Well Abigail and I went home and then we decided to get into bed and read until we fall asleep." He pauses momentarily as Riley says something that causes Ben to grin and say, "Shut up," jokingly before continuing. "So, I read for a while and then I decided to sleep and then a half hour later or so I woke up to find Abigail turning her lamp off to go to sleep."

Even I giggle at that. Now I'm beginning to think Riley must have called because he was upset over something. Because I realize Ben's trying to make him laugh.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Ben asks Riley. And now I know Riley's upset over something.

Riley says something and Ben says, "You don't have to. I just thought you might want to." A pause. "Ok. That's fine." As Riley speaks whatever he says next, Ben's face changes a little. When he asked if Riley wanted to talk about it, his face hardened, as if he was mad, which I don't understand. Is he mad at Riley? But after Riley responded, Ben's face softened again, became sympathetic. And now…his face is sympathetic and…sad. Sad for Riley.

"Yeah I will… No you're not. It's fine. I want to."

Ben remains quiet for a long time after that, but I have the door cracked open slightly and I can see that he's still on the phone. He stays on the phone until sometime between 3 and 3:30 in the morning, mostly being silent, but occasionally saying, "Yes," or, "I'm still here." Until around 3:15 when he whispers, "Riley? Are you asleep?" And then he waits a few moments before ending the call. I scurry back into bed, not sure if he'll be mad to know I was listening. I want him to know I'm awake, though. Maybe he'll explain. So I turn on my lamp and begin reading my book. At least, pretending to read my book.

Ben freezes when he sees me. "I'm sorry, Abigail. Did I keep you up?"

"No, no, it's not your fault," I respond.

He still looks guilty as he crosses the room, hangs the phone up and climbs into bed. I set my book on my nightstand and face him.

"Will you tell me what that was about?" I ask gently.

He turns so he's facing me and offers me a small smile. "I guess I owe you that much." He grows serious and gives me as vague a response as he can after taking a deep breath. "Riley…he went through a lot growing up. He doesn't like to talk about it, but, I don't know, he'll talk to me."

"You're his best friend," I interrupt. "He once told me you were the first person he trusted in a long time."

Ben nods with pursed lips but I can see a small smile appear momentarily. "It takes a lot for Riley to trust someone. I worked hard to show him I wasn't going to hurt him. Anyway, he, um…he has nightmares sometimes. Don't you ever tell him I told you this, but when he does, he calls me so I can calm him down and keep his mind off of it."

The phone call begins to make sense. Ben's changing expressions- he was angry at whoever hurt Riley so badly that he has nightmares over it. He was sympathetic because his friend was afraid and he was sad that his best friend went through whatever it is he went through. And the end, when Ben was mostly silent…he was waiting for Riley to fall asleep so Riley wouldn't have to try to go back to sleep alone. Riley must have been asking Ben if he was still there, so he would know he wasn't alone. That was why Ben kept saying yes and I'm still here.

"Do you think he'll ever trust me enough to tell me?" I ask.

Ben smiles at me, "Yeah, Abigail. He'll give you hints, I assure you. It's how he told me. Every once in a while, a topic of conversation would come up relating to his childhood and he would tell me one detail at a time." I snuggle closer to him as he goes on, "Riley really turned into a great guy considering everything."

"Well," I say, smiling at my boyfriend, "he has a great best friend to help him through it all. One willing to answer his phone calls at 2 in the morning despite his girlfriend's protests."

Ben laughs and then shrugs at me, "I guess that's what friends are for."

/

A/N: I'll leave Riley's past up to your imaginations. Review?


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